Thursday, July 30, 2009

I finished off some swaps this morning and whilst tidying my desk, came across a partially coloured flower from PTI's set Friends Til the End. My friend Laura (okiechic on SCS) gave me the image and I coloured it with Gamsol and Prismacolour Pencils. I like how it turned out, I just added the sentiment (from SU's Pendant Park) and layered it up with crushed curry and riding hood red.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Good Morning! I have a lot to do today so my first job (of course) was the Colour Challenge which you can find here. I used my new set 'Pendant Park', which I think is just lovely, along with the colours Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal.

Here's a close-up of the Modern Label Punch. I layered it by using my 'Movers & Shapers' die in the Big Shot. This die, cuts a shape in your card, and the piece which is discarded makes the perfect matt to the Modern Label Punch. Love it!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Well, Sarah (my 13 yo daughter) left for England last week to stay with my parents in Suffolk. I'm so excited for her, but I miss her terribly ... so I decided to make a card for her today. She scoffs at my cards, but I think she'll secretly like to get one from me!!! I hope so anyway!!!!

Today's CAS challenge to a sketch. The original card is here, I think it's just lovely ... mine turned out longer and skinnier to accommodate the balloons, but I think Sarah will like it. The sentiment is a bit lost, but it's on the green polka dots and says "Miss You" ....

Here's a closer look at those gorgeous shell buttons ... you can see the pop dots I used on the small button ... but at least you can see how they're attached {LOL}.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Just wanted to share another project I've been working on. My cousin, Kate, is expecting her first baby on September 1st and I'll be seeing her when I go to England in August. She doesn't want to know the sex of the baby so we'll have to wait until the little one arrives for that surprise. Anyway, when I see her, I want to give her a tiny something so I found the perfect inexpensive gift in Target the other day ~ these adorable tiny teddy bear booties for a newborn. They really are just the sweetest thing! Well, you know a stamper could never give a gift without some sort of gift-box, right? So I made a customised box, the base uses Barely Banana, and the lid uses Mellow Moss.

I cut an 8 1/2" square and scored on all 4 edges at 2". After burnishing the folds, I cut diagonally from the outer edges into the point where the scores intersect, this makes a nice, clean corner. The base of the box was cut 1/8" smaller (8 3/8") and scored at 2". This makes a nice, snug fit. The booties lay perfectly inside the box. Just pray the box doesn't get squished on the way to England!!!! The Teddy image is from a new set from SU called Teddy & Train. I coloured him with Copic markers. I then used my nesties to cut the scallop square and the layers are from the same 2 colours I used to make the box.

Just wanted to make a quick post with 2 cards using the new set from papertrey Ink called Everyday Button Bits. I love this set! It's such a great idea. The stamps come with a space for you to place the button of your choice ... so this first card shows the hot air balloons. All you have to do is stamp the image, then add your buttons to finish it off. Perfect!

And this one is 2 stamps of birds. You add the buttons (and a little embroidery floss black eye through one of the holes). Then you add a wing and you get these cute little birds. My friend Sharon also got this set, you can see what she did with hers here.

I want you to click on the birds to make the picture larger and look at the grass. This is soooo clever! My friend Moe showed me how you can trim the edge of the 1/4" grosgrain ribbon to make a thread to decorate your buttons. Such a clever idea. You can then colour-match your projects, you can also pull the ribbon apart to get a frayed look ~ another friend, Maria, took the discarded piece and made the grass under the birds' feet. How stinkin' clever is THAT!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Hi everyone. Today's challenge over on SCS is to use charms on our cards. I opened up my drawer of 'odds and ends' and this tractor charm was lying right on top of all the junk ... so I had an 'aha' moment and went off to find my new set, Farm Life. The perfect combo! Of course, this is an easy peasy card, no fancy techniques here ... just a little layering and some sponging and another little practice at colouring with pencils and gamsol ~ heaven!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Today's sketch over on Splitcoast is a nice and simple one. Here's what I came up with. My time is limited today as Sarah flies over to England to stay with my parents this afternoon ~ so there's plenty of laundry and packing to be done!!! Consequently, this was very simple and quick to pull together.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A quick and easy CAS card this morning. I'm rushing ... so CAS was a good idea! The colours today are Not Quite Navy, Pretty in Pink and Really Rust ... and this set is called Bird Watching from PTI. One of my good friends from the SCS MI Minglers recently moved house and I wanted to send her a New Home card to say congratulations!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Happy Monday! I'm so proud of this card ~ Lynn set our TLC (technique lover's challenge) over on SCS which was to use fabric on our cards. My mum and sister are superb quilters and had me hooked there for a while ... during that time I became a 'fabric addict' (my sister is still suffering from this disease!). So today was a treat as I fished out all my scraps of fabulous quilting fabric! These scraps are by MODA (Seven Sisters). I think SU should make DP just like these!

I ironed freezer paper onto the reverse side of the fabric to stabilise it, and ran it through the Big Shot. I promised not to use the Flower Folds Die again ... but how could I not???? Tee Hee. I also used a butterfly from the Butterfly Die "Beautiful Butterflies". Here are a couple of close-ups.

I used SU buttons on the flower centres and sticky-backed half pears on the butterfly. The cork is from Home Depot, it's also sticky-backed and goes through the Big Shot beautifully.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I love Sundays because it's the Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast! Today we were to CASE something from the gallery of Minnidr. I chose this card. I changed the images, colours and altered the layout slightly. I've used the Flower Folds die AGAIN ... apologies, I promise not to use it on my next card!!!!

Here's a close up of the flower. The die is the outer petals, then the button sizzlit, then a flower from the stamp set 'Wings of Friendship' (cut out) and then finally a flower from buttons bouquet with twine. I added a dash of dazzling diamonds too to make it pop!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Morning all! Today's colour challenge on SCS is to use Lavender Lace, Barely Banana, Going Grey, Basic Black and White! I pulled out my Flower Folds die again ... I absolutely love this die (are you sick of seeing it yet?). There's no stamping on this one {{gasp}}} ... just a little sponging with the going grey and hey presto!

... so I feel I've redeemed myself after the grid card (yuk) with this CAS card. Today, the CAS challenge was to choose a piece of artwork from art.com and recreate it in the style of CAS (clean and simple).

Here's a link to the artwork I chose to use as my inspiration piece ~ Fresh Limes. I just love this photograph so I recreated it with a square card of Shimmery White. I rock n' rolled the limes in Certainly Celery and Always Artichoke and stamped them onto a scrap of Shimmery White. Using the square 1 3/8" punch, I punched out the limes and mounted them on Old Olive. I made another outer border and hey presto ~ it doesn't get much easier than that. A tiny sentiment on the bottom and it's job done.

And here's a close-up of the limes which were dusted with SU's Dazzling Diamonds for an extra bit of 'something'.

OK, so maybe I was on a roll yesterday ... but today hasn't started off too well stamping-wise!!! The TLC over on SCS is to use the grid technique according to Dawn Griffiths wonderful video tutorial (here). Well, I immediately thought of the small butterfly from Flight of the Butterfly and got to work ... and I really dislike this card!!!! The grid lines are funky, the colours aren't good together, the layout's wrong ... so I guess I'll have some breakfast and have another try!!!! Well, you win some, you lose some!!!!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

I love Sundays! I'm still in my pj's and it's nearly 2pm! Anyway, I wanted to try another card with my new Bigz XL Flower Folds die. I love the way these flowers look. So this time, I made a card with the scallop square die, layered up some Kiwi Kiss & Ruby Red squares, added some texture with the new texture plate and added the flowers.

I felt the card was missing something ~ my white gel pen was still sitting on the desk so I picked it up and started doodling. So this is the card with the extra white embellishment.

Today the Featured Stamper over on Splitcoast is Schirmcat, aka Kelly. I love Kelly's gallery, so was thrilled to have a go at CASEing one of her gorgeous cards. I chose this one which appealed to me because of it's beautiful simplicity.

This is my version. I kept the Kraft base the same, but just used one strip across the centre and added texture with the new Perfect Details Texture Plate (pattern 2). I added white dots with my Signo pen to draw attention to the pattern. The flower was made with my new Flower Folds Bigz XL Die. I love it! The flower centre is another die for the Big Shot, it's called 'buttons #5'. Below is a close up of the flower.

I've managed to find time to play with some of the new products in the SU 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog! It feels so good to be down in my work room playing around with my new goodies!

Here are 3 photos of 2 cards I made. I used my new scallop square die for the Big Shot to make the cards. Easy to do, you just fold a card as you would normally, but when you place it onto the die, just make sure the fold falls inside the square. I love the fresh colour combo, it's Bermuda Bay layered with Crushed Curry and Whisper White. The punches used for the sentiment are Modern Label and Word Window. The stamps are Medallion (I can tell I'm going to love this one!) and the sentiment from Elegant Thank You.

Here's an alternative view, showing the inside which is layered the same as the outside.

And last but not least, the same card made in Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip. The sentiment here is from teeny tiny words.I'm on a roll now ... off to make some more!

Followers

About Me

I'm an English ex-pat living in Michigan USA! I have a husband and daughter, we all came over to America in 2001. In February 2008 I became a Stampin' Up Demonstrator and my true passion was born! I post my class samples and general stamping here, it's all Stampin' Up Only .... and I love it!